Chapter 2: Thick Blood Flavor

  With a deafening roar that shattered the sky, we were shaken to dizziness. Chen Yan 'Lu' spat out the stone from his mouth with a twisted face, covered in blood and saliva.

  "He let out a strange cry, probably because he had twisted his waist."

  As the dust settled, a thick smell of blood wafted from the dark ground. I shuddered and heard: "Do you guys smell that bloody smell?"

  I saw Liu Ke fainting on the right side and exclaimed: "Hey! Yan 'Lu', come and help me quickly! Liu Ke has fainted!"

  Chen Yan helped me up from the ground and we continued to move backwards while supporting Liu Ke.

  "Where are you going?" I followed up and asked.

  "Let's go up to the observatory and take a look." He replied calmly.

  I nodded and followed him.

  He reached a row of spectator seats and put the faint Liu Ke'an on the seat. I followed him to climb to the highest point, with a panoramic view of the playground.

  The crater in the center of the moon is clearly visible to me, with a diameter of over 10 meters. The sky has already turned dark, and after checking my phone, I'm exhausted and just want to sleep.

  Why would a school suddenly appear with ghost fires and then explode?

  I think Chen Yanluo already had the answer in his mind. But I didn't want to ask him. I wanted to use my own brain to think, this kind of situation never happened before, school was very strict, at night after 9 o'clock, students were not allowed to stay on the playground. Chen Yanluo and I secretly returned around 11 pm, already exceeding the strict requirements, so now only we are present at the scene. And Liu Ke, who had been missing for several days, suddenly appeared, and the explosion occurred.

  My head buzzed with a loud noise.

  I don't want to suspect Liu Ke, although that's what the book teaches. At the scene, apart from me and Yan 'Lu', it was just him...

  "Study 'Luo', how...do you think?" At last, I still want to ask out his idea.

  Chen Yan stared at Liu Ke with a single word, "Lu", without saying anything, as if he wanted to swallow him whole. I didn't dare imagine it, but he must have also suspected Liu Ke. Then, he gently stretched out his hand, and I closed my eyes tightly, not daring to look.

  After a few seconds, all he heard was "Liu Ke has a fever."

  I thought he was going to search him, and it scared me. Suddenly opening his eyes, the smell of blood came floating in immediately. Although not as strong as what we smelled on the track just now.

  "We can't stay here any longer! We have to hurry back to our dorm." He said calmly.

  The first time I saw him without the childish 'aura', my heart skipped a beat. Seeing me frozen, he let out a sigh and came over to hold my icy hand. Unlike mine, his hand was full of warmth and wrapped around mine.

  "Returned with a smile: 'Xiao Mimi, let's watch the school tomorrow.'"

  I came back to myself and looked at Liu Ke. He said: "Don't worry, I'll carry him. You go back first."

  I shook my head uneasily and said, "No, I'll go with you."

  Yan Lu let out a sigh, crouched down in front of Liu Ke. I used all my might to lift the big man onto his back, and at this time, Yan Lu's slender figure made his back look exceptionally broad.

  Hold on, Liu Ke. I touched my forehead and found that it was not just a fever, but a high fever. Yan Luobei took care of him, and we quickly retreated outside, leaving the playground.

  Back to the dormitory, the sky has already turned pale with a fish belly white. The fatigue of this night made me fall asleep quickly, and I slept until noon. Roommates came back after lunch, saw that I was covered in dust and dirt, and screamed loudly to wake me up.

  Rubbing the bleary eyes, struggling to get up, my whole body aching with muscle pain. This is even worse than a hangover...

  Turn on the fully charged mobile phone, and the message ringtone keeps ringing. More than 20 unconnected calls, 5 text messages, all from Chen Yan 'Lu'.

  Today is April 4th.

  Luckily, my roommate woke me up; otherwise I would have missed this afternoon's exam!

  I got up and checked my messages.

  7:00 AM: Why didn't you answer your phone? Don't worry, his fever has gone down.

  8:30 Second period: Quick, answer the phone! Hello, idiot, aren't you awake yet? The police are investigating and have completely sealed off the school grounds.

  3:40: Liu Ke woke up, unclear consciousness, I called to send him to the big hospital. You see this message, please call back immediately.

  At 11:00 am on the fourth day: things are indeed as imagined.

  Article 5: Noon at 12 o'clock: Quick phone call back!

  I looked at the fully charged mobile phone, 12:30. The last message was sent half an hour ago, I pressed the quick dial button 2 to connect to Chen Yan's 'Lu' mobile phone.

  "Stupid, you're awake now?!"

  I held the phone away from my ear and walked over to the sink to wash up.

  "I was a bit over-tensed last night..." I explained, staring at the mirror in surprise at my hair which had been slept into a 'chicken's nest'. And that face covered with dust and those dirty clothes stained with mud. Sighing repeatedly, afraid that this set of clothes can't be worn again.

  "On the other end of the phone, after a moment of silence, he said: '...Our school...has someone dead.'"

  I wasn't surprised when I heard the news. Who was it that died? I asked while brushing my teeth. The voice was unclear, mumbling and slurring its words.

  The other end of the phone was silent for a long time, and all I could hear was his slow voice, one word at a time, coming out of his mouth: "Our... advisor."

  "Whoosh——!"

  The toothpaste and cup fell to the ground as I finished brushing my teeth, and without thinking, I blurted out: "How did our instructor... die?" I didn't want to think about it, I didn't want to consider it.

  Usually, my mentor and I were very close. He was kind and approachable, a role model for our studies. One night, just a few hours later. Before class, he still smiled at me and said: Study hard. And just a few short hours later, he left this world.

  "On the other end of the phone, he said heavily: 'Come out, I'll treat you to dinner.'"

  "Are you still in the mood for dinner?" Tears fell unknowingly, "I'll go find you right now."

  I hung up the phone and quickly washed my face. I changed into clean clothes and went out, and before leaving, my roommate told me the exam time. I nodded and wished her good luck with her studies.

  Out of the "door", today's weather is exceptionally cold. The sky is drizzling with "soft" spring rain, I forgot to bring an umbrella. Rushing through the crowd, in the "flesh" wall, I found Morning Dew sitting in the corner staring out the window in a daze.

  I quietly sat down across from him, I knew his mood was even heavier than mine, the instructor usually showed special favoritism towards him.

  "A cup of coffee," I said to the waiter.

  He heard my voice and turned around. There were five anime figurines placed beside him. "Want to hear my reasoning?"

  I nodded, "You say." He was entangled in thought, he should be thinking about the same thing as me.

  My thinking is that what I saw last night was a fire caused by torches, not some kind of ghostly fireball, because there were only two balls and they didn't move. The explosion was triggered from underground, as for what specifically triggered it, I don't know. I didn't think about it myself, but the instructor's death was due to congenital heart disease. He couldn't withstand the huge noise and died.

  I know my reasoning has many mistakes, which is also because of the assumptions made under many unknown numbers.

  "This is a bizarre death case." He paused, rudely snatching the coffee from me and taking two big gulps.

  I rolled my eyes in annoyance and asked, "How is this possible? I believe in science..."

  "There are some things that science can't explain."

  I remained silent and let him continue, he must have been up all night, his dark circles were very prominent. "At dawn I went back to the dormitory to change my clothes and then returned to the 'exercise' field, that pit was about 12 meters in diameter, inside it was full of burnt smell. The surrounding black color dried blood stains proved that someone had died here."

  My heart skipped a beat as he took out the first anime figurine and put it down. This was Chen Yan's unique way of thinking, which he occasionally used when doing high-IQ questions.

  I didn't dare to stay for too long, so I returned to the dormitory. Now it's cool on the balcony, and after waiting for a few hours until dawn, the bloody smell was no longer noticeable. The police car cautiously entered the school at 7:00 am, when students were still resting.

  I listened carefully as he told me about the events he had missed while sleeping. He continued, "They sealed off the playground. That's what happened, I guess that fire was from a torch."

  Here and I reason alike, he sees my eyes shining brightly, takes out another figurine, and puts it behind the first one.

  "There were two torches and two people. When we arrived, only one person was in the bushes, the other had gone who-knows-where."

  I was puzzled and continued to listen, "At that time, we met Liu Ke." He stuck the third figurine tightly onto the second one. "He told us it's very dangerous here and urged us to leave quickly. I suppose he knew something we didn't know. We received news that someone had died, our instructor. Only a few of us students knew about this because the school didn't want to affect tomorrow's celebration. So, only we, the instructor's students, were informed of his death." He stuck the fourth figurine tightly onto the first one.

  At this point, I broke out in a cold sweat, my heart racing. He fell silent for a moment, then drained his coffee cup in one gulp. Pulling out the fifth doll and placing it behind the first two groups, he said, "There's another theory... The police are hiding the truth."

  After listening, I felt that things were not as simple as I thought.

  "In other words, you suspect that the first and third puppets are one, and the second and fourth puppets are one." He looked at his slender fingers, which were still holding the fifth puppet.

  I continued: "The one holding the torch in the middle of the playground is Liu Ke and the instructor, and all our guesses are just wild guesses. It's possible that the police intentionally concealed the truth... then what truth would they conceal?"

  "They didn't bring out the tapes to review the eyewitnesses, they are hiding Liu Ke," Yan 'Luo' guessed.

  My mind was a complete blank, and I remembered that Liu Ke's mother was a detective, which might also be the reason. Now after hearing Yan Luo's reasoning, I feel that my mood has been relieved a lot. He is one of the rare geniuses, and his grasp of accurate reasoning is higher than mine.

  Ling stood up and walked out, I followed closely behind in small steps. "Where are you going?"

  "Go to the archives." His tone was calm, and he surprisingly said these four words without any hesitation. This was a forbidden place in school. All students' and teachers' personal files were stored in that underground room. I didn't know where the underground room was, but Morning Research's 'exposure' ability had already exceeded my imagination.

  Xiao Bu Lan came to the library, I looked at him differently. He smiled and pulled my hand to walk inside. We had done many sneaky things since we were young:

  When I was a kid, I stole eggs from my neighbor's house, climbed trees to steal cherries, and played daredevil hiding in other people's backyards eating radishes... This is still our first time doing real stealing, we want to go steal, it's all the people related to the police in this school. If I'm not mistaken, he wants to use the elimination method to investigate!